SEC. CYRUS R. VANCE

Real Name: Cyrus Robert Vance

Identity/Class: Human (real life character)

Occupation: Lawyer;
    former US Secretary of State; President of the New York City Bar Association; US Deputy Secretary of Defense; Secretary of the Army; General Counsel of the Department of Defense

Group Membership: The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society;
    formerly the US Navy; the Scroll and Key Society

Affiliations: Ambassador McHenry, Pres. Jimmy Carter, Aubrey Pearson

Enemies: Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom) (though he was completely unaware of it)

Known Relatives: John Carl Vance II (father, deceased), Amy Roberts Vance (mother, deceased), John Carl Vance III (brother, deceased), Grace Elsie Sloane (wife, deceased), Elsie Nicoll Vance, Amy Sloane Vance, Grace Roberts Vance, Camilla Vance Holmes (daughters), Cyrus Robert Vance, Jr. (son), John W. Davis (cousin, deceased)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Washington, DC, USA;
    formerly Switzerland; Bronxville, New York, USA; Clarksburg, West Virginia, USA

First Appearance: (in a Marvel Comic, identified only as Cyrus) Champions I#16 (August, 1977);
    (behind-the-scenes, fully identified) Black Panther I#14 (March, 1979)

Powers/Abilities: Cyrus Vance had no superhuman powers but he was a skilled politician, especially in the area of peace talks and plans.

    He was also an accomplished lawyer.

Height: Unrevealed (see comments)
Weight: Unrevealed (see comments)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black (graying)

History:
(real life) - Cyrus Robert Vance was born on March 27, 1917 in Clarksburg, West Virginia. Following his father's death in 1922, Vance and his family moved to Switzerland for a year before returning to the USA, where his cousin, Ambassador John W. Davis, became his mentor. Graduating from Kent School in 1935 and Yale College in 1939, Vance moved on to Yale Law School, where he graduated in 1942 before serving in the US Navy until 1946 during World War II. He subsequently married Grace Elsie Sloane in February 1947 and they had five children together. Vance was asked in 1957 by then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson to leave Wall Street to work for the US Senate Committee on Armed Services, beginning Vance's political career. Working under both Pres. John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, Cyrus Vance resigned his position in the late 1960s in opposition to the Vietnam conflict and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969. After serving as president of the New York City Bar Association in the early to mid-1970s, Cyrus Vance became the US Secretary of State under Pres. Jimmy Carter.

(Champions I#16) - Affected by Doctor Doom's neuro-gas, Secretary Cyrus R. Vance happily stood next to President Jimmy Carter as Carter turned his office over to Doctor Doom. When Carter incessantly talked about how happy he was to turn his office over to Doom, an increasingly annoyed Doctor Doom eventually exclaimed that he couldn't tell if they were obeying him due to the neuro-gas or their own self-interest before storming out of the room, prompting Jimmy Carter to turn to Cyrus Vance and ask what he'd said to offend Doom. Vance assured Carter he'd done nothing wrong and that it would simply take time for Doctor Doom to get used to Washington.

(Black Panther I#14 (fb) - BTS) - Aubrey Pearson became known as one of Cyrus Vance's toughest policy negotiators. After the Black Panther began Wakandan relations with the outside world, Vance sent Pearson along with several other ambassadors and politicians to meet with the Black Panther.

(Black Panther I#14 - BTS) - Pearson and the other negotiators met with the Black Panther, who assured them that Wakanda was not in the market for advisers by either America or its enemies, prompting one of the politicians to ask what she should tell the Secretary of State. The smiling Black Panther suggested she tell the Secretary that he looked forward to meeting him soon. As the negotiators left and the Avengers arrived on the scene, Iron Man noted the high-powered visitors the Panther had and Captain America remarked on how Aubrey Pearson was one of Cyrus Vance's toughest negotiators, to which the Panther responded that Pearson had went pretty easy on him. 

(Avengers I Annual#9 - BTS) - As the Avengers were investigating the robot Arsenal, he communicated with the team's security liaison, Henry Peter Gyrich, who had his agent Marsden switch the video feed over to a Dr. Singer before asking Marsden to patch him in to Secretary Vance.

(Defenders I#84 - BTS) - When Atlantis and Wakanda were on the verge of war, Pres. Jimmy Carter appeared on television, assuring the American public that he was keeping an eye on the situation and that Secretary Vance and Ambassador McHenry would be advising him as the situation developed.

(real life) - Following the Carter presidential administration, Cyrus R. Vance returned to his law practice and in 1991, he was named Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Croatia. In this capacity, he worked towards a solution to the conflict in Croatia and he soon became Special Envoy in Bosnia, where he helped develop a peace plan there. In later years, Vance served on the board of directors for several major corporations but eventually began suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. He passed away on January 12, 2002 at the age of 84.

Comments: Adapted into Marvel Comics by Bill Mantlo, Bob Hall and Mike Esposito.

    The Marvel Database Wiki website shows an image from Champions I#16 of a gray-haired, balding man with the rest of Jimmy Carter's cabinet and associates as the main image for Cyrus Vance but, looking at images of the real Cyrus R. Vance circa 1977 (the year Champions I#16 was published), he was not balding. None of the politicians were identified in that scene in Champions I#16. While Vance was graying, he had darker hair and with that in mind, I believe the image I've chosen for the main image in this profile is actually the person intended to be Vance rather than the balding man seen in the image on the Marvel Database Wiki. This is supported by the fact that on page 6, panel 3 of Champions I#16, we see Jimmy Carter turned to a man with a dark, full head of hair and say "Wh-what'd I say, Cyrus?" (see headshot image above).

Profile by Proto-Man.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Sen. Cyrus R. Vance should be distinguished from:

images: (without ads
Champions I#16, p6, pan1 (Sec. Cyrus R. Vance, main image)
Champions I#16, p6, pan3 (Vance, as seen from behind)

Appearances:
Champions I#16 (August, 1977) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Bob Hall (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Black Panther I#14 (March, 1979) - Ed Hannigan (writer), Jerry Bingham (pencils), Gene Day (inks), Roger Stern (editor)
Avengers I Annual#9 (1979) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Don Newton (pencils), Jack Abel, Joe Rubinstein (inks), Roger Stern (editor)
Defenders I#84 (June, 1980) - Ed Hannigan (writer), Don Perlin (breakdowns), Tex Blaisdell (finishes), Al Milgrom (editor)

First posted: 11/09/2025
Last updated: 11/09/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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